Re: PostGRESQL Features I'm looking for

1. Load data infile
- in mysql I can take an excel file, save it as tab deliminated and upload it right into a table using load data infile. Does postgres have something like that?

2. select * into outfile
in mysql I can select the contents of a query right into a text file on my server.

The COPY command is a very straightforward way to move data between files and the database. It accomplishes both of these. There are also plenty of extra command-line options, and special 'non-SQL' commands available from the 'psql' command prompt (type '\h' and '\?' inside psql for more details). Extremely cool example: you can use the standard "backtick" operator (`) to capture the output of shell commands to variables inside psql, as in:

This example would set the variable foo, concatenate a single quote, the output of "ls -lah /home", and another single quote, making it a valid text entry. Then anywhere you use :foo in your SQL statement, it gets substituted for your /home directory list. Makes for some very interesting shell script possibilities, no?

3. PHPMyAdmin
does postgres have a graphical interface like mysql has phpmyadmin? It makes administrating so much faster.

As Slyatslys mentions, phpPgAdmin is available, as well as several other interfaces. phpPgAdmin was completely changed recently for versions 7.3+ of PostgreSQL (because of architectural changes in PostgreSQL). The decision was made to scrap the old codebase and start again. Unfortunately, this means that many of phpMyAdmin's easy features are not yet implemented, so it might be a little frustrating to use at the moment. There are several developers (I might be contributing also ) working hard at restoring the full feature set.

Meanwhile, I strongly recommend you try the beta version of PGAdmin III. This is a much more "serious" tool for database management, and since version III, is now capable of running on many desktop platforms.

Check out many contributed modules and programs for PostgreSQL at http://gborg.postgresql.org/. Also, look for an article on migrating from MySQL to PostgreSQL by yours truly soon .

Just whilst I'm thinking of it.. and I admit I haven't googled particularly hard for this, does Postgres have a fulltext indexing features like the MyISAM tables in mysql? I have an application where speed of retrieval from a large database is essential. I wouldn't consider Postgres if I didn't think it could match a heavily indexed/optimised mysql equivalent on select.

jplush76, from what I have read a move to postgres also unravels other great features such as Views, stored procedures, data cubes, sequences, row-level locking and more - quite an impressive array of toys for someone who really cares about their data!

...does Postgres have a fulltext indexing features like the MyISAM tables in mysql? I have an application where speed of retrieval from a large database is essential. I wouldn't consider Postgres if I didn't think it could match a heavily indexed/optimised mysql equivalent on select.

For sure . There are some great extras in the PostgreSQL source download. Just unpack the tar.gz archive and go into the directory called 'contrib'. There, you will see several text matching modules, such as 'fulltextindex', 'fuzzystringmatch', and the popular 'tsearch', which I think is the most commonly used fulltext system for PostgreSQL.

(By the way, just browse through the other directories in /contrib -- there's some phenomenal stuff.)

I would recommend against that book, and most others for one very good reason: PostgreSQL changed significantly this past year (with version 7.3+) and most of these books don't deal with those changes. I think the only recent book on PostgreSQL is PostgreSQL, by SAMs press. I can't comment about the book, not having read it, but it is at least published in 2003, so it should cover these features.

Originally posted by jplush76 damn! lol I literally just place the order as I got your email notification.

lol...

Don't worry... This book will still get you a long way. It's not that features have changed much, but new features such as schema and domain have been added, which make PostgreSQL much more of an enterprise DB server. Actually, I browsed the TOC for the "PostgreSQL" book and was disappointed to see that they don't even bother to deal with domains yet, so even they aren't completely up-to-date.

Anyway, for the REAL questions, just ask away in this forum, and we will be happy to tackle them.